Watch: Cuba Postcard: 'Expect the Unexpected'

The easing of travel restrictions to Cuba could unleash a torrent of 'Yanqui' tourists, something that has the potential to transform a poor island that is rich in history, architecture and natural beauty.

WUSF's Steve Newborn visited Cuba with Sarasota-based Sea to Shore Alliance before the United States embassy reopened. He takes us on a tour of Old Havana and sees what is being done to prepare for a possible influx of newcomers.

Havana beckons like a grand dame, the belle of the ball way past her prime.

"We have to take back the history that was falling down," says Raul, our tour guide, as we walk through Old Havana.

The old city boasts cathedrals dating from the 1500's. Our guide blames the decay on the "special period," right after the Soviet Union collapsed, when Cuba lost its major benefactor. He says they're betting on tourism to pay for renovations that are slowly remaking this crumbling capital.

"It's one of the reasons that buildings are being rebuilt, and that's one of the things we're doing right now. So you're going to see many buildings in Old Havana in bad shape, because they're going to be fixed again," he says. "Many of these buildings are lived in by people, many of them have fallen down but their facade stay, because the office of the historian wants to keep it for in the future to make something else. So I'm sorry if you don't like that things are the same in Havana, but some people say it's part of it's richness, no, to have old things and new things together."

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The easing of travel restrictions to Cuba could unleash a torrent of 'Yanqui' tourists, something that has the potential to transform a poor island that is rich in history, architecture and natural beauty.

Most Floridians see manatees as cute, roly-poly animals that hang out in crowded springs and get too close to boats. Travel south a bit - to Cuba - and their plight is very different. There, the animals often end up as somebody's dinner. WUSF recently traveled with a Sarasota-based conservation group to the island, where their groundbreaking trip tried to find ways to save this iconic creature.

PENAS BLANCAS, Costa Rica — As summer began to bake the central Cuban city of Sancti Spiritus, Elio Alvarez and Lideisy Hernandez sold their tiny apartment and everything in it for $5,000 and joined the largest migration from their homeland in decades.

If you could start selling something in Cuba that would be a sure-fire money maker, what would it be?

Probably something that hasn't been widely available for more than 50 years in the state-controlled economy. A product for which there's pent up demand and one that would surely spruce up the place after decades of neglect.

To most Floridians, manatees are cute, docile creatures that hang out in crowded springs, and often get too close to boats -- or rather, boats get too close to them. But down on the other side of the Florida Straits, they sometimes end up on someone's dinner table.

WUSF's Steve Newborn recently tagged along with Dr. James “Buddy” Powell of Sea to Shore Alliance -- a Sarasota-based conservation group -- on an expedition to Cuba to find out how manatees are doing in the waters off the island.